Evolving Masculinities in Recent Stories by South Asian American Women

Abstract

South Asian American women's stories are primarily written from one female character's point of view; few stories by these writers have explored Indian men's conflicts as they work through internalized colonialist, consumerist and patriarchal norms. Two recent exceptions are Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies (1999) and Meera Nair's Video and Other Stories (2002). These authors depict middle-class male householders struggling amidst the invasion of Western and hypercapitalist assumptions. Lahiri and Nair lead readers to admire men who question traditional precepts and thus make a new contribution to South Asian American feminist literature.